Friday, January 31, 2014

At this early stage of the Australian school year I'm re-posting a revised version of a previous post as parents and teachers tackle the question how do we best develop spelling ability.

How do we learn to spell?

There are many misconceptions about learning to spell and write. They are misunderstood by children, parents and even
some teachers. The standard way to teach spelling in schools has
generally been through the memorisation of lists of words and learning
rules.

But as I pointed out in a previous post on spelling (here),
it is impossible to learn the number of words that we use as adults by
memorising lists. So, while spelling lists might help children to
memorise some words, proficient spelling requires the development of a
range of generic skills that are necessary for effective spelling.

The stages of spelling growth

Children
begin to learn about spelling in the preschool years in rich language environments that support them as readers,
offer them many varied opportunities to write, and encourage them to explore and play with words.
There are many skills that children need to learn as part of writing for varied purposes. Most children move
through a series of stages in spelling development. While these are
never 'neat' and discrete, they are recognisable with most
children. Understanding the stages will help us to choose the right
strategies to help them become better at spelling. Gentry and Gillet (1993) suggest that most children move through the following stages:

Pre-phonetic
- this occurs very early on (from age 2-3 years) and involves the
child trying to form letters or simply drawing symbols that are an
attempt to represent letters.

Semi-phonetic -
at this stage (age 4 and up) the child is able to write most letters
and even some approximations to words, and they know some of the sounds
they make (as well as letter names).

Phonetic -
eventually the child is able to represent sounds with the appropriate
letters (single letters at first). They also begin to represent words
in more conventional ways, but often they will use invented spelling
patterns where the word has some (but not all) of the letters correct.
This begins for most children from 5 years of age.

Transitional
- at this stage children (aged 6-7 years) are able to think about the
word, develop visual memory and begin to internalise the spelling
pattern and know when words 'look right'.

Conventional
- at this more mature stage the child can use both visual and auditory
skills and memory as well as meaning based strategies (like seeing how
the word fits in context). Now they can write multisyllabic words from
memory and find the learning of new words much easier as they apply
their skills and strategies from one situation to another. This occurs
for most children from about 8 years of age but continues to develop
throughout the primary years of schooling.

How can I help children to be better spellers?

Most
children learn quite naturally to experiment with writing and
spelling. This occurs in varied ways. For example, as we read
to toddlers we point to words and language devices; this in a sense is
the beginning of spelling awareness (not just reading). Early
memorising of rhymes and songs, playing with sounds and word play of
all kinds is also the beginning of spelling. The 10 necessary skills
outlined in a previous post (here)
are acquired both incidentally ('caught') and by explicit help
('taught') and instruction. There are a variety of more explicit
strategies that teachers and parents can use to support spelling
development in the primary school years. I will share 8 key strategies
that are helpful.

1. 'Have a go' strategy

This
is a strategy for trying to spell unknown words as part of the writing
process (ideal for children aged 6 years and older). Teach your child
(or children) to apply the following strategy when they need to spell
an unknown word.

Ask yourself, have I seen it before?

Say the word out loud and try to predict how many syllables you can hear.

Ask do I know any other words that sound almost the same?

How are those words spelt?

'Have a go' at spelling it (Aussie vernacular for trying to do something).

Ask yourself, does the word look right?

Have additional attempts at getting the word right.

2. Look-cover-write

This
is a strategy that you can teach children new words at any age, once they have started
to write. It has three simple steps.

Step 1
- When you need to remember how to spell a new word look at it carefully, say it
out loud, examine the number of syllables, any unusual
grapheme/phoneme relationships etc.Step 2 - Cover the word
Step 3 - Try to write it from memory

3. Here is a collection of self-help strategies - children as young as 6 can be taught to try to learn new words.

After covering the word try to picture it in your mind.

Uncover the word and trace the letters, cover and try again

Look at the new word, break it into syllables. After studying the syllables cover the word and try to write it.

Look at the new word and try to memorise the most difficult part of the word (e.g. the 'ght' in sight).

Check your writing environment for the word, or one like it (wordlists, other writing, dictionaries etc).

4. Using sound to visualise words

An
alternative to some of the more visual strategies above is a simple
auditory strategy that can be used as follows. The key to the strategy
is to keep encouraging the child; avoid making the child feel like
spelling is one big test session.

Ask the child to write the word after saying it slowly at least twice.

Encourage them to listen to the word as they say it and to try to write the sounds in order.

Now repeat the word breaking it into its parts or syllables; for
multisyllabic words some teachers have the children clap as they say the
syllables out loud.

Encourage the child to try to think of other words that sound the same, and to think about how the other words are written.

Finally, have the child write the word (bit by bit) as they say the syllables.

5. Word family approaches

Many
young children will benefit from an approach that presents words in
sets that have similar phonological elements. For example, you might
present your children with a group of words ending in 'ight', others that begin
with 'thr' etc. You can have fun forming the lists with your child (or
children), writing them down, then trying to remember them. There are
many good spelling games that support this type of approach.

6. Using a word connection strategy

This
is a strategy that supports the development of the 'connection' skill
mentioned in my previous post on spelling. It is a meaning-based
strategy.

Ask the child whether the word to be spelled reminds them of another word they know.

Encourage them to explain how it is similar and then use the information to help spell the word.

Then encourage them to think of other words like these words and to use parts of the new associated words to write the new word.

Encourage them to think of places or contexts where they might have seen this word used.

Then try to write the new word.

7. Morphemic (meaning-based) strategies

Photo courtesy Wiki Commons

For
some words a meaning-based approach will help older writers. This
starts with the parent or teacher pointing out a morpheme within a new
word, explaining the meaning, then analysing a set of words. For
example, a word like 'unexpected' can be broken into two elements, 'un'
and 'expected'. Discuss with the child or children what 'expected'
means and then explain the meaning of the prefix 'un'. Have the child
think of other words that fit this pattern and then write them down.
Depending on the age of the children you might even go further with an
example like this and break it into 'un', 'expect' and 'ed'. In this
instance you would also consider how the suffix 'ed' changes the
meaning of the word.

For older children (aged 11 and up) you might also consider exploring Latin roots to aid spelling. For example:

'mare' meaning 'sea' as used in marine

'pedis' meaning 'foot' as used in pedestrian

'gress' meaning to walk as used in 'progress' and 'transgress'

'tract' meaning to 'draw', 'drag' or 'pull' as used in 'attract' and 'contract'

Mnemonics
are devices that help us to remember things. I'm not a big fan of this
approach but sometimes it helps when a child (or adult) just can't
manage to avoid confusing two spellings. So it's usually a strategy that
people use to remember how to spell words that they get wrong
habitually. A mnemonic simply helps to remove confusion or narrow the
options for spelling. There is a down side to mnemonics though. If you
use them too much you tend to reduce the use of other key spelling
strategies, reducing your confidence and risk-taking as a writer. A
simple example of a mnemonic applied to spelling is one used to help us
know the difference between 'affect' and 'effect'. It is based on the
word 'raven' used as an acronym:R - rememberA - 'affect'V- verbE - 'effect'N - noun

Online resources

There a variety of online resources that
aim to help children learn more about spelling. Most are simply ways to
memorise lists of words but even this basic strategy has a place,
particularly for irregular words that are exceptions to our languages
rules. An advantage of online resources is their appeal for young
children and the instant feedback that children receive. One useful site
is Kidsspell.com (here) that
offers varied wordlists, a free spellchecker and thesaurus, games to
play etc. You can also find sites that allow children to apply
strategies like the ones I have described online (see for example
application of 'look, cover, write' on this site). You can find other games and activities at 'Games aquarium' (here) and others on the Kent Junior High School site (here). But remember, spelling is much more than learning lists and playing online games.

Summing up

Language is always undergoing change (see my post on 'English, the Inventive Language')
and with increased use of mobile phones, Facebook, Twitter and so on,
it is bound to change more than at any other time in history. But
accurate spelling is still important. With spellcheckers everywhere and
the preparedness of the young to invent their own language online, some
suggest that the teaching of spelling isn't as important, but this of
course is nonsense. Conventional spelling is still important - let
anyone come up with an invented version of your name and see how you
react. Accurate and consistent spelling is not just about conventions
and good taste; it is important for the communication of meaning.

Spelling is an integral part of reading, writing, speaking and
listening. It is learned as we use language for real purposes. But it
isn't simply 'caught'; there is an important need for teaching. Most of
this 'teaching' does not occur through memorising lists of words, but
rather as we draw children's attention to variations in the English
language. We need to show them simple rules for spelling, offer
strategies for getting words right, provide tools for seeking correct
spellings (including dictionaries and spell checkers), give them new
knowledge about how our complex language works and as we simply
encourage them to use and 'play' with words.Other links and resources

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

I last wrote about this topic in August 2012 for readers in
northern hemisphere nations like the USA and the United Kingdom. In Australia most of our schools are returning next week and many
children will start school for the first time. I
can't remember my first day at school, but I can
still remember the mix of emotions that my wife and I experienced when
we sent our two daughters off for their first day of formal schooling
(this was some time ago).
This year we have a grandchild who will start in Kindergarten, which is the
entry-level class for Primary schooling in our state of New South Wales. Evelyne (pictured opposite at her dance concert) was born with a rare genetic disorder which presents some physical challenges that require her to have additional support. So for her parents, the question isn't just is she ready for school but is the school going to be able to meet her quite specific physical needs?

Evelyne's Mum Louise on her 1st day

The
starting age in Australia varies from state to state. In NSW any child
may commence school if they are five years old or turn five prior to
the 31st July in that year, but they must start no later than six years of age. In other states the ages and rules vary so it can be a bit confusing.

In other countries we see similar diversity.
In Finland children start formal schooling in the year in which they
turn seven. In Germany it is six, in Britain five and in the USA it
varies (like Australia) from state to state.

So is there a best starting age? If there is, few
education systems seem to agree on what it is. "Should my child start
school at five even though... (fill the blank)?" is one of the most
common questions I hear from parents when I've been interviewed on
commercial radio several times about this topic. The short answer I give in radio
interviews is the same one I give to parents - "it all depends". Yes, children need
to have reached a certain minimum stage of physical, intellectual and
emotional development to cope with school, but variations from four and
a half to six years don’t seem to make huge differences to most
children’s long term academic achievement. My granddaughter Evelyne has been ready for school intellectually for a year but in her case the physical demands of schooling need also to be considered when choosing a start time (as well as the school).

It would
seem that there is little evidence for a universal perfect age for
starting school.
In reality, we need to make individual assessments for each child.
Here are some things to consider if your child has reached an age at
which he/she can officially commence formal schooling. Please note that
these questions don't all apply to children with disabilities. In such
cases parents have to consider many things when making a decision about
the right time to start school.

Is my child physically ready?

Do they have the motor skills typical of the average starting aged
child? Can they walk, run, jump, throw things, dress themselves (few
can tie shoelaces – that’s why we have Velcro! And Kindergarten teachers
are good at it anyway). Can they tear paper, apply some stickers,
hold crayons and pencils and use them (even if not that well)?

Can they feed themselves and will they cope with a new degree of independence?

How big is your child? Very tall children often struggle if held
back when they eventually go to school. And very small children might
struggle if they go early.

Are they toilet trained and independent?

Is my child emotionally ready?

Is
your child able to cope with separation? Going to school should not
be the first time the child has been out of the sight of parents or the
primary caregivers.

Have they had at least some experience relating to other children?
Can they share, communicate, show some control of anger and frustration?

If your child is keen to go to school there’s a strong chance that they are emotionally ready.

Can they communicate their emotions (frustration, fear, anger, affection etc)?

Is your child intellectually ready?

This is tougher, but in general you would expect that your child can:

Concentrate
on activities for extended periods of time (say at least 10-15 minutes
on one activity). This might include being able to listen to a story,
watch some television, sustaining attention on a game or activity that
they like.

Hold crayons and show some interest in making marks or scribble (the early stages of writing - see my post on this topic here),
show some interest in print and symbols (e.g. “what does that say
Mum?”), complete basic puzzles (maybe 30-50 pieces), try to write their
name, count to five, recognise some letters.

Use language sufficient to communicate with other children and the teacher?

Show some interest in learning. This can show itself in many ways
such as inquisitiveness, exploration, and observation of things around
them.

Ultimately, parents need to make this decision based on what
they know about their child. There are some other things worth
considering:

What is the
school like? Do you know the teachers and do you have confidence that
they will be able to understand your child and help them to find their
feet at school?

What are your family circumstances like? If you have another
sibling just one year younger you might want to make sure that you don’t
have them going off to school at the same time.

What was the experience that you had as parents? Did you go to
school early or late and what was the impact on you? Given the common
gene pool this is a useful consideration.

What are your personal circumstances? Is there major upheaval in
the family or some major change coming in the next 12 months (e.g.
moving to another area)? If so, holding your child back might be
justified.

I find today that there is greater anxiety about starting age
than ever before. Unfortunately, much of this is caused by parents
worrying unduly about children being successful at school. I have
parents who ask me (for example) is it okay that their child can't read
yet, even though they are only four. This is ridiculous of course; most don't
start reading until they get to school. Others ask if holding their child back a
year will disadvantage them compared to others. Overall, if you
consider the needs of your child and the broad range of capabilities
I've outlined above, I think you'll make a good decision. If you get it
wrong, the evidence is that generally children will cope and adapt over
time, and that there are few long-term problems for most children.

An
interesting postscript to this matter is that Finland that does well in OECD international school assessments as measured by PISA surveys. And in Finland,
the starting age is seven!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

I have commented previously on the power of music to help children to acquire a love of language and literacy (see my piece on rap music). I have also made reference to students who while reluctant writers have wanted to compose music (here). But might music have a more direct role to play in literacy acquisition. First Grade teacher Becky Iwasaki thinks so and has used music to great effect in her classrooms as reported in the October 2013 edition of 'The Reading Teacher'.

The authors of the article in 'The Reading Teacher' cite research that found that struggling students improved their reading ability as a result of regular repeated singing and reading of songs over a period of just 9 weeks. The reasons for this would appear to be:

When we sing using written music we are also reading.

Specific features of music make the reading more memorable, including the rhythm and melody of the songs.

Songs like poetry are often characterised by rhyme, sound repetition and alliteration and can enhance phonemic awareness.

Songs become a form of repeated reading without the boredom of regular class repeated reading.

Becky Iwasaki decided to try to use music with grade 1 to improve reading ability by teaching them at least two songs each week. She used a consistent format that included the following structure that requires 10-15 minutes each day:

Day 1 - She chooses a relatively common song and has it playing in the background when the children arrive at school. She then introduces the words to the song on a chart and encourages them to follow the words as they try to sing it. She repeats this several times during the day. Later in the day she leads a discussion concerning the meaning of the song. She might also use the song to do word searches, sight words etc.

Above: Image courtesy Wiki Commons

Day 2 - The same song is sung chorally using the chart and also their own printed copies. She encourages them to identify words from the song that they recognise as sight words. She might discuss words that rhyme, word families (e.g. 'un' as in run, fun, sun etc).

Day 3 - She again starts the day by singing the song and then follows it with focussed word study using word families, writes them on the board, gets the students to read them, find others like them etc.

Above: Courtesy Wiki Commons

Day 4 - They again sing the song and follow this by sharing favourite parts of the song, and finish the day by writing in their journals about the feelings evoked by the song.

Day 5 - The song is again sung then it is performed for another audience (e.g. another class, parents, school principal etc).

While I don't find the elements of the structure used in the above approach all that novel and exciting, the approach clearly worked. My suggestion is that the above approach could be supplemented in other ways to make it even more engaging if repeated a number of times. To give more variety to the approach I would suggest:

Careful choices of songs that have appropriate words and topic interest for the age group.

Supplementation of the Iwasaki approach with some related literature or poetry (this would be ideal on day two or three).

The use of craft, drama, dance and art in association with the learning of the songs (this would be a great thing to do on day 5).

Of course, none of my suggested supplements should reduce the time spent actually reading the words and singing the song, for time on task reading is critical to improvement. I would love to hear from readers who have also found that music can help literacy.

Friday, January 3, 2014

I'm asked by many parents just when they should start reading chapter books
to their children. All that I will say in this post should be balanced against what I said in my recent post on picture books (HERE). If he or she won’t sit still long enough to hear a
chapter through, then it’s too early. But, then again, you might just
be choosing books that are dull or those that are just too hard and complex as
narratives. You might also need to sharpen up your story reading.

Here are some quick questions that you might think about in assessing whether your child is ready:

Can your son or daughter listen for 20 minutes plus of reading aloud from picture books?

Do they seem to enjoy the text as much as the pictures?

Do they seem to relate to the characters and can they follow more complex picture books?

Do they ask you to read favourite books over and over?

Are they showing growing understanding of written language and
asking questions about it (e.g. “What does calamity mean?” “Why does it
say….?).

If you answer yes to most of these questions then they are
probably ready. Children who have been read to constantly during the
preschool years are typically ready to listen to chapter books from age 5
years and up (some even earlier). I also add that some children will
be ready before 5 years.

In a post I wrote in 2008 on ‘Guiding children’s learning’ (here)
I talked a little about Jerome Bruner’s concept of “scaffolding”. He
identified scaffolding as a process where an adult helps children to
learn in advance of their developmental level. The adult does this by
doing what the child cannot do by themselves; allowing students to
slowly take over parts of the process as they are able to do so. In
many ways, this is the most fundamental reason to read chapter books to
your children once they have become avid listeners to stories and
beginning readers themselves. They can listen to more complex stories
than they can read themselves as emerging readers.

In practical terms, chapter books offer children:

More complex narrative forms and plot development

Richer and more complex language

New areas of knowledge about their world and the human condition

Different literary devices

They train your children to be able to sustain longer periods of reading

As well as the above, chapter books will enable you to build an
even richer shared literary history with your children. Shared books
will become part of your literary common ground within the family, and more
broadly, they will help to connect your children to a literary culture
that others will share with them.

A couple of warnings

Having said all of the above, there are a couple of warnings that I’d give:

Don’t push your children too quickly; all learning requires periods of consolidation before moving on to more difficult terrain.

Be aware that while your children might be able to follow the story
line, relate to the characters and so on, they may not be emotionally
ready for some of the content.

Be prepared to offer support - with chapter books you may need to
explain new words, discuss new concepts, offer new knowledge etc.

Don’t forget, that reading a chapter book still needs to be
interesting and enjoyable and that it will be harder to achieve this
without pictures so you’ll need to work harder on varying your character
voices (see my earlier post on reading to and with your children HERE).

One final warning. Don't assume that once you commence chapter
books that picture books no longer have a place (again, see my recent post). Young children still
need to read picture books and hear them read to them. They continue to
have an important role in children's literacy development throughout
the primary years of schooling.
Some Chapter Books to try

The
list below is not meant to be extensive, just illustrative. It has a
particular Australian flavour (but not entirely). I preface the
following suggestions by saying that individual children will handle
these books at different ages. For the very youngest readers it is best
to start with books that have some illustrations to maintain interest
until they develop more 'stamina' for harder books. The age guide that I
have given is meant to be a ‘group age’ guide for teachers sharing
such books with larger groups. Parents reading to a single child will
perhaps find that their child can deal with books I’ve listed at an
earlier stage. Conversely, your child might not be ready for some of
these books as suggested. You may also find that they can handle even
more difficult books not on the list (but don’t forget the warnings
above).

Rich literacy experiences from the start!

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About Me

I am a Professor of Education at The University of Sydney, Australia. I have spent a large part of my adult life as a teacher, academic, researcher and senior university administrator. My interests are varied, including how children learn language and literacy, the nature and construction of meaning, curriculum, pedagogy, and adult learning.